I love this man.

He's on Mount Rushmore of sports media all time.

He is, and he deserves to be there.

I want his Mount Rushmore of sports media members all time at the end of this interview.

He is Stephen A. Smith.

He is the host of First Day.

He has his radio show coming up in a little bit on mad dog radio

uh one to three every day one to three eastern stephen a smith the great stephen a smith joins us uh

stephen a what is the key to being so fucking cool because i think you might be the coolest person

i have ever met i'm serious i just think it's all this is about being mean, you know, I let anybody else to find it as

cool or whatever it is. Just be true to yourself. What you is what you get. Be the kind of person

that, you know, is consistent, good, bad, or indifferent. Everybody knows that's you. When they see you

and you are, they're not trying to say that you're something different,

that you are who you are.

And as long as you're that person, you're good to go.

How many steps can you take without someone saying, hey, Stephen A?

Maybe about three.

I mean, in this day and age, I mean, I don't know if it's a blessing or curse or whatever. I just know that I'm pretty well known, no matter where I go. And obviously, for a lot of reasons that I don't have anybody to blame but myself, so it's not a negative. Sports is sports. But then I mean, damn, I'm on soap operas for crying out loud. And so, you know, you're doing sports, you're doing soap operas.

You're doing politics like I do now and stuff like that. So the combination of it all,

you're going to run across somebody who either hears you or sees you. And obviously,

everybody thinks they know you because of it. So you got that going on.

Do you find yourself being exhausted from all the work? And then when you're done with the work, can't take three steps without someone saying,

...